Was Judas really a villain?

The principle of sacrifice is embedded in every (ancient and modern) religion. The various 'religious sacrifices' have evolved from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice to self-sacrifice - sacrificing money or other possessions, food and/or drink, worldly comforts, time to pray and meditate, and time to help others.

Every Christian knows that Jesus the Christ made the ultimate sacrifice, of His own life, to save our immortal souls. Whether His sacrifice resonated solely in the spiritual realm, whether it provided an example to bolster our faith in God, or whether it achieved both is certainly food for thought.

His was a pure sacrifice born out of a pure love for us and a pure love for His Heavenly Father who loves us with a pure love. And so Jesus the Christ donned this heavy burden - the spiritual weight of us all. An unbearable burden for us mere mortals, but the Son of God was no mere mortal. Strengthened and emboldened by the love for God and for us; the dutiful Shepherd sat with His disciples for the Last Supper.

THE LAST SUPPER

I know that we were always given the impression that the Last Supper was all about prayer, meditation, camaraderie and saying goodbye. But, I feel that it was also about the issuing of final instructions and planning for the future of the neophyte splinter Jewish group with radical ideas about God and mankind.

Although the Sprit of God within Him revealed everything, what if Jesus' words were last-minute orders that had to be strictly adhered to if His arrest and crucifixion were to take place according to God's plan? What if Jesus told Peter that, no matter what, he must deny Him repeatedly in order to evade arrest and crucifixion? Remember, Peter was to be the 'rock' upon which He was going to build His church.

What if Judas' assignment was to betray Jesus the Christ? No doubt, God has an input in all plans, but, what if Judas were following Jesus' orders to betray Him convincingly so that His persecutors would have no doubt that they arrested the right man? Is that so far-fetched? What if, when asked who would betray Him, in order to inform the entire group, Jesus said that it was to be the one to whom he just gave bread dipped in wine? He then ordered Judas to do what he had to do quickly.

"Don't stop" and "Don't! Stop!" mean completely opposite things. What say an ancient language spoken 2,000 years ago which was translated and tweaked? Could we have been misinterpreting the utterances during the Last Supper all along?

UNBEARABLE PAIN

I have always found it unlikely that Judas, a member of Christ's inner circle, someone who had turned his back on the mundane world to follow a man who claimed to be the Son of God, someone who had to have a spiritual development commensurate with the close ties that he developed with his spiritual master (Jesus the Christ), could be swayed by money and be complicit in the crucifixion of Jesus. It is possible that Judas could not bear the sadness (as opposed to remorse) welling up inside of him and eventually committed suicide.

So, Judas may have been an obedient disciple following a command to carry out the terrible but necessary task of betraying Christ for the greater good of saving us all.

But the same cannot be said of the innumerable Judases in the world today. Many professed Christians betray the Holy Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost, the Christos) by harbouring hate, anger, envy, selfishness, greed and cruelty in their hearts. Nothing good can come of any of those - they only serve to displease our Heavenly Father.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.